In 2016, the Landsverordening inzake concurrentie (Lvic)/National Ordinance on Competition came into effect and the Fair Trade Authority Curaçao (FTAC) was established. Curaçao was the first island in the Caribbean part of the Dutch Kingdom with a competition law and a competition watchdog.

Amsterdam Bureau for Economics evaluated the Lvic and the FTAC in the period 2016-2023 on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Development of Curaçao. The evaluation shows that the FTAC is an active, professional competition watchdog that has done a lot in its young existence in educating the private sector and the population, providing information and developing internal and external procedures. Partly because of its short existence and declining budgets, hard results that are noticeable to the population have so far been limited.

Competition supervision is of great importance in a small economy where there are more dominant market positions and the danger of cartels is just around the corner. In the coming period, the FTAC can increase its effectiveness by, among other things:

• Adding consumer protection to the FTAC’s range of tasks so that in the future Curaçao has a Market Authority that covers both areas of supervision (competition, consumer protection);
• Intensified cooperation with the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), the Aruba Fair Trade Authority (AFTA), the Regulatory Authority of Curaçao (RAC), the Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten (CBCS) and the Fundashon pa Konsumidó (FpK);
• Return the FTAC budget to 2018 levels;
• A more active attitude towards anti-competitive government policies;
• Design and implement a simple leniency scheme; and
• Lower the threshold for reporting concentrations, investigate whether substantive merger control is desirable and feasible, and introduce reversal of the burden of proof and filing fees.